The LemonLight Prize Shortlist

Fifty-one poets. One anthology. The final judging begins.

Two weeks ago we announced the longlist for the inaugural LemonLight Prize — one hundred poets drawn from the 706 entries we received in the spring. Since then, that field has been read again, closely, and read against itself.

Today we’re announcing the shortlist.

We said we would name fifty. We are naming fifty-one. There was a poem we couldn’t leave out.

The LemonLight Shortlist — 51 Poets →

Unlike the long-list, this is more than a recognition. Every one of these fifty-one poets will have a poem published in The LemonLight Prize 2026 Anthology when it appears in September — a limited edition of 250 copies, produced to the same standard we bring to everything we publish.

From this shortlist, Leila Chatti will select the overall winner and four honorable mentions. That announcement comes in early August. Judging has been conducted blind throughout: Leila has been reading the work, not the names attached to it, from the first cut to the last.

If you’re on the shortlist: congratulations. Your poem will appear in the anthology alongside fifty others whose work made it through what has been the closest reading I’ve done in some time. That’s worth marking.

If you were long-listed but did not make the shortlist: I know it stings. The cut from one hundred to fifty-one was as hard as any part of this process, and there is no version of the list that would have been objectively right. The certificate we sent last month was sent in earnest — the longlist is a genuine standing, and I hope you’ll send us work again.

The anthology mails in September.

Amazingly, only around at the time of writing this ONLY 15 COPIES remain of the print run of 250 — the run is limited by design, and once it closes, we do not reprint.

Pre-order the Anthology →

Ink & Ribbon Press is a nonprofit poetry publisher based on Bainbridge Island, Washington. The LemonLight Prize is our annual award for a single poem — $2,000 to the winner, 4x honorable mentions recognized in the anthology who each get $250, and 46 other poets featured..

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